Hi Folks,
I always maintain that "Experience is the Greatest Teacher" and here's
my
present tale of woe to confirm that hypothesis:

I'm refurbishing the 15-year-old's room and in the process adding the
dreaded laminate flooring.
First mistake: the missus buys the laminate "nice and cheap". For
"cheap"
read "easily cracked or punctured" - very thin laminate, so you learn
that
perhaps buying cheaper isn't always wise.

Second mistake (this time of my doing): the laminate came with a 12mm
cork
border so I (stoopidly) bought 12mm thick skirting boards since they
were
"economical" (i.e. cheaper than the thicker stuff). Result: some
visible
gaps round the perimeter of the flooring.

Third mistake: since the old skirting was nailed on I decided to repeat
this
attachment method. I punched the oval nails under the surface of the
boards,
then wondered how to cover the heads (the plan was to varnish the
boards, not
paint them).
My old man was a joiner (carpenter) to trade, so he suggested getting
the
sawdust off the cut boards and mixing this with PVA glue to make a
colour-
matching filler.
This doesn't do the job, and with a standard one-inch spatula as the
applicator the result is still a circular "stain" of varying diameter
even after a nights drying and vigorous sanding the next day.

Of course, you all know what I should have done, so beyond buying
better
laminate, thicker skirting and either not using nails or polyfilla the
holes
then gloss the boards do tell please.

Just give it a handful of months until I forget and then I can
ignorantly
repeat the gaffe...

Mungo ;-)

P.S. Its for a 15 year old so the chance of even seeing the floor for
the
piles of clothes and damp towels will be unlikely... grrr.

wrote:
My old man was a joiner (carpenter) to trade, so he suggested getting
the
sawdust off the cut boards and mixing this with PVA glue to make a
colour-
matching filler.
This doesn't do the job, and with a standard one-inch spatula as the
applicator the result is still a circular "stain" of varying diameter
even after a nights drying and vigorous sanding the next day.

Let the boards dry more before you rub them down. Consider using a
coloured varnish to mask the haloes. Coloured varnish has it's own
issues, though.

PVA and sawdust is a rubbish filler. Coat the nail heads with
shellac (knotting) before filling with polly fillah or almost
anything else. You can even mix knotting and sawdust. I find
the coloured "Cuprinol" fillers OK.

You could always "grain" it....

In article .com,
says...
snip

Third mistake: since the old skirting was nailed on I decided to repeat
this
attachment method. I punched the oval nails under the surface of the
boards,
then wondered how to cover the heads (the plan was to varnish the
boards, not
paint them).
snip

Glue the skirting with Gripfill. MDF is for painting. :-)

Chris Bacon wrote:

PVA and sawdust is a rubbish filler.

But you can understand why people use it. Sawdust should be the same
colour as the wood but, because the density is different, it stands out
like a sore thumb.

Stuart Noble wrote:
Chris Bacon wrote:

PVA and sawdust is a rubbish filler.

But you can understand why people use it. Sawdust should be the same
colour as the wood but, because the density is different, it stands out
like a sore thumb.

Also the timber won't take stain, etc. It's been suggested quite
often here as being good for things like filling gaps between
floorboards. Pah.